Review for Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino OVA

Introduction

I'm impatient, and I'm a collector; that's a combination that doesn't bode well for my wallet. Manga Entertainment had initially announced that Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino would be released in the UK as a three disc, complete collection, gathering the two series discs, and the OVA disc into one, very appealing package. But when it came to the release date, that wasn't to be, and we instead only got the complete second series. I needed to know what happened after the series, which prompted me to import the US disc as quickly as I could. The downside to that was that the Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino OVA episodes do not actually provide a conclusion to the series, and instead are two rather more eclectic stand-alone episodes. The upside to that was that the US release from Funimation was actually region free. Now, Manga Entertainment are releasing the OVA episodes on a single, stand-alone disc. Should I have waited for this release? Am I kicking myself for my impulsive and impatient nature? Well, yes I am, a little. For unlike the Il Teatrino series, which got an NTSC-PAL standards conversion as was once the way with all anime brought to UK shores, the Il Teatrino OVA episodes have actually had the native PAL treatment given to them, supplying a slightly superior image quality to the disc. In most other respects though, it's the same disc, hence the cut and paste in my review.


The Social Welfare Agency is an Italian government organisation that takes critically ill young girls and turns them into cyborgs, trained in assassination. They are paired up with handlers who guide them through their missions, and are set forth to do the government's dirty work. The two OVA episodes on this disc offer more of the lethal gamesmanship between the Social Welfare Agency, and the Five Republics Faction terrorists that they face, as well as a chance for the cyborgs and their handlers to wind down with a hard earned vacation.

1. The Light of Venice, The Darkness of the Heart
2. Fantasma

Picture

The Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino OVA gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer, which is a very agreeable native PAL transfer, with the requisite 4% speedup to the audio. The image is clear and sharp enough, and there are no problems with judder or interlacing. Produced by Artland, the style and presentation of the animation is just like that in the second series, in other words not all that inspiring. Again it looks like a lower budget production. The artwork is simpler, less nuanced, the character designs take a major knock, the overall frame rate of the animation is lower, and the colour palette is a lot brighter and generic. But it does do enough to tell the story, and there are still moments in the show that do stand out.

Sound

You have a choice of DD 5.1 English, and DD 2.0 Japanese, along with optional subtitles and a signs only track. As always, I opted for the original language track, which for me again was a disappointment. The show has been recast, and there is a completely different approach to the dub compared to the first Madhouse production, making the young androids more girly and generic anime clichés. It lacks the subtlety and nuance of the original series, and it does take a lot of getting used to. In contrast, with the exception of Hirscher, the English dub cast return to voice the same characters as they did in the first series. As their approach to the girls was initially perkier than their Japanese counterparts, you'll find a lot more continuity between seasons and this OVA in the English dub. The surround is unremarkable, but effective enough.

Extras

The Manga disc lacks the trailers of the US disc, but in every other respect is the same for content, presented by static menus, and with a jacket picture to look at when the disc isn't spinning.

You'll find the two textless closing sequences for the episodes, and more substantially, the Japanese Cast Interview: Voice of Hilshire. The Japanese discs had five of these featurettes, one for each of the cyborgs and their handlers, but Funimation and Manga offer just two of them, one here and one on the Il Teatrino series collection. This one lasts 24½ minutes, and has the Japanese voice actors for Hilshire/Hirscher and Triela, Masaya Matsukaze and Atsuko Enomoto sit down and chat about their characters, the show and the story, and spend a fair bit of time goofing around.

Conclusion

Those questions that I had following the end of the Il Teatrino series, about what happened to those FRF members who escaped at the end of the final episode, about how Triela dealt with the aftermath of the confrontation with Pinocchio, none of those are answered in these two OVA episodes. I commented in the review for the series, that while the first series from Madhouse excelled at fusing character and emotion, the Il Teatrino series really only came to life when it explored its characters through narrative. The results when it tried the character and emotion approach were variable. The two OVA episodes here, are further attempts for it to fuse character and emotion, and just as in the Il Teatrino series, the results are disappointing. Not only don't we get any closure to the storyline of Il Teatrino, we have two rather mediocre episodes to conclude the show.


The back of the US case even made a point of stating 'Triela sorts through the wreckage of her showdown with Pinocchio', but as that amounts to a couple of minutes sat in a garden with Claes, as she tries to cheer up Triela who's been feeling a little depressed of late, I'd almost call that false advertising (I don't get the packaging with the Manga check disc, so I can't tell you if the same blurb is on their case). Certainly the focal point of her feelings would revolve around Pinocchio and Hirscher, but since neither of them is there, nothing actually feels resolved.


What this disc is actually about is exploring Jean's character, giving him some back-story. We learn just why he is fighting the Five Republics Faction so fervently, and the reasons behind his fanatical hatred. We get an idea of the tension between his real work and his public façade, when we meets the man that would have been his brother-in-law when Jean pays a visit to a cemetery, and he blames Jean for not doing anything to fight the terrorists. The truth is that he's been keeping count of every terrorist killed in his work, and we get to see some more of that fervour as he and Rico go on a mission to Venice.


The second episode sees the brothers Jean and Giuse take a vacation with their respective cyborgs in tow. The reasons why Giuse fights have been explored in the Il Teatrino series, the loss of his sister Enrica spurring his hatred of the terrorists, and explaining the complicated relationship he has with Henrietta. That relationship develops further here, and in a quite creepy way. The reasons why Jean has been fighting lie buried in that cemetery, but he too lost a sister to the terrorists, yet he's been keeping the loss of Enrica out of his mind. Going to Sicily on vacation with his brother forces him to confront that loss, and the guilt that remains for neglecting his sister when she was alive.


These are two fairly run of the mill episodes, which were they produced by Madhouse would no doubt have been spectacular. Clichéd scripting and leaden pacing renders them ineffectual here. Most of all, I don't like Jean's reinvention of character as accomplished by Il Teatrino, and underlined here. In the Madhouse series, he was a cold, isolated man who truly saw the cyborgs as tools, nothing more. In Il Teatrino, he's presented as a cold, isolated man, who secretly has a heart of gold, and actually deep down, somewhere, has a smidgen of affection for his cyborg Rico.


These two episodes are enjoyable enough to watch, some brief entertainment, and if you like Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino, they're probably indispensable considering that compulsive collector gene we all share. When all is said and done though, they are rather weak additions to Il Teatrino, and a rather unimpressive way to conclude the series. No doubt Gunslinger Girl fans will want to have this disc in their collections regardless, but with just 46 minutes of programme content, albeit bolstered by a fairly substantial featurette, it needs the price to be reasonable, a £15 R.R.P. is about £5 too much in my estimation. Being patient for an appropriate sale would be advised.